A city stroll

Travel Diary: Days in Rome, Part 2

Day 3

We started this day with a visit at the Forum Romanum, right next to the Colosseum.

The sky was blue, but is was super windy. After a while we really got tired from walking around, also the ground was quite sandy and the wind blew it right in our faces.

After Forum Romanum we caught a tram that brought us to the Trastevere district. We were in search for a place to have lunch and I was searching for two bookshops I had heard of before.

A typical italian restaurant.

After a while we found "Almost Corner Bookshop". 

I bought "A time in Rome" by Elizabeth Bowen and "My Cousin Rachel" by Daphne du Maurier here.

This shop was quite cute, filled with books and cards.

The streets in Trastevere are filled with cute little shops, restaurants and ice cream parlors. 

At "Fior di Luna" we made a quick stop for some ice cream ( :

Back in the city we need some rest and visited a café somewhere in Rome. I had some coffee and already started reading in my new book.

On day 4, which was also our last day, we had breakfast and then packed all of our stuff. We brought it to a locker at Termini station and from there we took a metro to the Vatican. This must be the main attraction in Rome, cause it was super full. 

From the Vatican we walked to the Castel Sant'Angelo and enjoyed the sun. We also had some lunch in this district and tried a highly recommended ice cream parlor before driving to the airport.

Travel Diary: Days in Rome, Part 1

It's time for another travel diary! So a few days ago we came back from our little four day trip to Rome! We made the trip with our travel couple in crime, Laura & Gerri. We have been in Prague together last year. On Thursday morning we caught our flight to Rome Fiumicino airport. From there we bought tickets for the train and drove directly to the Termini main station in the heart of Rome. The weather was so lovely, sunny and warm. Compared to home it felt like summer already. From Termini we had to walk a couple of minutes to get to our Airbnb apartment which was located in a quiet street.

Day 1

After arriving we left the apartment in search for some lunch. On our way we found a cute ice cream parlor, where we enjoyed some ice cream, I had greek yoghurt ice with honey and pistachios. Right after that we found a typical italian restaurant for lunch. As a starter I had super yummy olives and a veggie calzone as a main menu. Full and happy we left the restaurant in search for the Trevi Fountain. We found it really quickly as it was not far away. There were so many tourists but we made our way through all the people and managed to take some photos.

It was already late so we decided to walk back to the apartment and to make a little stop at the supermarket to buy some food for dinner and breakfast.

Day 2

After a good breakfast on day 2 we decided to do some sight seeing. There's just so much to see in Rome, so we bought tickets for a hop-on-hop-off bustour. It was wonderful to drive through the city on top of the bus, roofless, listening to classic music and the explanations for some tourist attractions.

Our first hop-off from the bus was at the Colosseum of course. It didn't take so much time to get in there. It was a really sunny day,  a perfect day for visiting this open air attraction.

This is Circus Maximus, photographed from the bus.

After all that sight seeing we indulged ourselves with ice cream again. Okay, I also had a macaron on top, so what? (: It was so yum!

We walked down the streets and found a cute restaurant for lunch in a quiet road in a pretty neighborhood surrounded by yellow buildings. I ate some simple but yummy Spaghetti Pomodoro there.

When it became evening we decided to go to the Spanish Steps. It was very crowded, but anyway the view was fantastic. Laura and me went to a nearby supermarket and bought some chips and wine. Then we enjoyed a fantastic sunset with the boys.

Winter Days

Hello lovely people,

I hope the new year is treating you well.

Me personally, I am sick of this grey and cold weather. As every year around this time I am really longing for spring!

Anyway, I am trying to get through these grey days by just doing things I love.

I went to the bookshop this weekend and found two new treasures for my collection: "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath und George Orwell's "1984". Can't wait to read both of these books, though I am a very slow and unmotivated reader at the moment.

I enjoyed salty caramel cheese cake (my favourite) and a winter latte in the bookshop café. It's just my happy place in the cold months.

This month I also received my subscription box from Gunn Dean Candle Co, it's so lovely that I need to show it here ( :

They make lovely scented soy wax candles with bookish themes.

The theme of the January box was "Classes at Hogwarts". All candles in the box have a Hogwarts/Harry Potter theme and I can tell you - all of them smell AMAZING! (this is not sponsored!).

There were also some other goodies included in the box, tea, a bookmark, a necklace...

I am now off reading my book "The Historian" and brewing a cup of tea.

2019 Books

The first two weeks of the new year are over and I finished reading my first book of 2019.

It's "The Toymakers" (Die kleinen Wunder von Mayfair in german) by Robert Dinsdale. The book's 464 pages long and I finished it this morning in bed, sipping on a cup of tea. I always feel a little sad when a book comes to an end, but there are so many books on my to-read-list. 

Now I am struggling with the decision what to read next. I am thinking about reading "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova. The book has over 800 pages but it seems so interesting and I've heard only good about it so far. The story blends the history and folklore of Vlad Tepes, better known as Dracula. 

Another book that I definitely wanna read this year is "Elfenkrone" (Original: The Cruel Prince) by Holly Black. I don't know if the story is more aimed for teens, but I don't mind. Since I watched all Hobbits and LOTR movies during holiday season, I am totally into elves (Elbs). There is already a sequel of this series, "The Wicked King", but it's only available in english yet.

I also wanna read more classics this year:

1. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

2. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott

3. Nana - Émile Zola

4. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

5. To The Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf

6. The Castle - Franz Kafka

I get most of my books 2nd hand, that's why I can spend my money on them. Sometimes I get a book for only 2 Euros and it's still like brand new, maybe it has been read only one time before. For me it's always so much fun browsing for books, online and in shops.